1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to three-dimensional measurements, and more specifically, to an efficient method of scanning and measuring a three-dimensional object.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Three-dimensional objects are often scanned in order to make a three-dimensional measurement of the scanned object. To accomplish this, a scanning device scans the scanned object from different angles. Unfortunately, unless the scanning device scans the scanned object from many different angles, some portions of the scanned object may not be scanned by the scanning device, and therefore, will not be measured. When scanning a scanned object for the first time, it is difficult to predict exactly how many times the scanned object will need to be scanned in order to scan every surface of the scanned object. Traditionally, the only way to ensure that every single surface of the scanned object is scanned is to scan the scanned object a great number of times, each time scanning the scanned object from a different angle.
Unfortunately, this is a very time consuming process, and some of the scanning operations are redundant and unnecessary. Thus, the industry is in need of a way to efficiently scan and measure a three-dimensional object.